He didn’t realize it at the time, but first-time Aussie director George Miller was making an arthouse film. With co-writer Byron Kennedy they set out to make a micro-budget film with a dystopian rogue biker theme, but ended up with a film franchise and the birth of a major star. Who would have guessed!
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that a 4K Ultra HD collection titled, The Mad Max Anthology, will be heading home as a four-film/four-disc collection on Nov. 2.
The original Mad Max was released Downunder in 1979 and arrived as aa pick up by American International Pictures, which promptly redubbed the Australian language track into a more understandable American-English version.
That’s probably some sort of trivia question … how many Aussie films have been dubbed from Aussie-English to American-English!!
Released domestically in 1980, the film was imagined as a biker action flick, but it quickly found a following as an arthouse entry and a repertory mainstay. Surprise!!
The title character was played by newbie Mel Gibson, who caught the eye of fellow Aussie filmmaker Peter Weir and was given the lead in Gallipoli.
A biker film becomes an arthouse favorite and it spawns a sequel in 1981, which would become one of the greatest sci-fi action films ever made, The Road Warrior. Mel Gibson was now a star.
The sequel was superior in every way to the original. What a ride. What a film. Great story, great cast … incredible action. Instant classic.
And then came the great misstep, the next installment in the series, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Released in 1985, it was a franchise killer. Besides, Mel Gibson was now a box office star and ready to move on.
Thirty years would pass and filmmaker George Miller would redeem the series with the 2015 film release of Mad Max: Fury Road, with the inspired casting of Charlize Theron, who is teamed with Tom Hardy as the new Max. A blockbuster.
Mad Max and Mad Max: Fury Road have been previously released on the 4K Ultra HD format as stand-alone product offerings. This will be the first time that all four films in the series will be together as a 4K Ultra HD collection.
The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome will also be released on Nov. 2 as stand-alone 4K Ultra HD editions.
In other release news from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment this past week, the October new-to-Blu-ray film library release calendar was also announced and it has some real jewels in the mix.
Oct. 12 is the street date for the Blu-ray double-feature titled Val Lewton Double Feature, which includes director Mark Robson’s 1943 film release of The Ghost Ship (Lewton producing). Tom Merriam (Russell Wade) is the new the third officer on the Altair, but before he can even report to the captain he is warned by a dock-side beggar that it is a cursed ship.
Paying no mind to the warning, he reports to Capt. Stone (Richard Dix) and before long realizes that the shipper is quite mad, and thinks nothing of murdering members of his own crew if they displease him. Will the beggar’s warning come true for Tom?
Teamed with The Ghost Ship is the 1946 Boris Karloff horror film, Bedlam, with Robson once again the director and Lewton the producer. Set in London during 1761, we are introduced to Lord Mortimer (Billy House), who arrives at the notorious insane asylum with his lover, actress Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), to inquire about the mysterious death of his friend.
They meet the “warden” of Bedlam, George Sims (Karloff), who is a cruel and sadistic man. He assures them that it was an accident. Soon, Nell has a falling out with Lord Moritmer and he hits upon a unique solution to her torments … commit her to Bedlam as being insane and let Sims give her his special “cure!”
Also making its Blu-ray debut on Oct. 19 is director Karl Freund’s 1935 horror film, Mad Love, starring Peter Lorre, which was his American film debut.
Rounding out the October new-to-Blu-ray selections are director George Cukor’s 1933 film release of Dinner at Eight (a new 4K scan); Children of the Damned (with commentary by screenwriter John Briley); Deborah Kerr and David Niven star in Eye of the Devil, and Kay Francis teams with Lyle Talbot in the 1933 film titled Mary Stevens, M.D. … all four street on Oct. 26.
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